Football: Big Ten is still a bruising league

Multiple changes have provided Big Ten football with a fresh coat of paint, but underneath the shiny veneer still lays the time-worn need for toughness to succeed in the conference.

Todd Jones, The Columbus Dispatch

Multiple changes have provided Big Ten football with a fresh coat of paint, but underneath the shiny veneer still lays the time-worn need for toughness to succeed in the conference.

Traditionalists might have shaken their heads over the Big Ten adding a team, splitting into divisions and deciding to play its first championship game this season. They can take heart, however, that coaches among the top teams agree that black and blue are still the Big Ten's defining colors going into this weekend's first round of conference play.

"Guys better buckle it up," Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald said. "It's going to be one heck of a ride. This league is a gantlet. We beat the bejesus out of each other."

Despite passing far more than during the Woody and Bo Show of the 1970s, Big Ten teams realize they still need rock'em-sock-'em attitudes on both sides of the ball.

"Teams that are mentally tough and play physically with a team mentality are the teams that win championships," Michigan coach Brady Hoke said.

That's why Hoke isn't fooled by his team's 4-0 start. The Wolverines had the same record the past two seasons and ended up 7-6 and 5-7, including 4-12 in Big Ten games, under previous coach Rich Rodriguez. Although heartened by the start, Hoke said the Wolverines need to play more physically on defense, especially at the point of attack. And he frets about their lack of depth.

"We're thin, especially in the areas that, in my opinion, count: up front on offense and defense," he said.

Toughness in the trenches is what Saturday's marquee game will test when seventh-ranked Wisconsin plays host to No. 8 Nebraska in the Cornhuskers' first Big Ten game since leaving the Big 12.

"The game has changed a little bit (in the Big Ten)," said Nebraska coach Bo Pelini, who played at Ohio State from 1987 to '90. "There's a little bit more variety now in the offenses. But ultimately, football is football."

And Wisconsin, which shared the league title last year, is about pounding the ball on offense and punishing on defense.

"I'm old-school," Badgers coach Bret Bielema said.

So is Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio, who brings his defending co-champion Spartans (3-1) to Columbus this week to play Ohio State (3-1).

"If you want to be a champion in this conference, you've got to play great defense," Dantonio said.

Michigan State leads the nation in passing defense (101 yards per game) and total defense (172.2-yard average), ranks No. 8 in scoring defense (11.0 points per game) and is ninth in rushing defense (71.2 yards per game).

"We've been able to stop the run, and when they've thrown it, we've been very good on third down," Dantonio said. "Right now, we're tackling pretty well on the perimeter, and then we've made the game somewhat one-dimensional."

The Spartans are one of seven Big Ten teams ranked in the top 20 in the nation in scoring defense, behind Wisconsin (third, 8.5 points per game) and ahead of Penn State (10th, 12.5), Illinois (11th, 13.0), Michigan (13th, 13.6), Ohio State (18th, 15.7) and Purdue (20th, 16.0).

Soft schedules have padded the statistics. The Big Ten has a 34-12 nonconference record but has played only 11 opponents from conferences with automatic qualifiers to Bowl Championship Series games and only three that were ranked at the time.

While the Big Ten has just one win against a ranked opponent - Illinois over Arizona State at home - and five league teams have yet to beat a BCS conference team, the emphasis on running the ball has shone through no matter what the level of competition.

Six Big Ten teams are among the nation's top 23 in rushing, led by Nebraska's average of 272.5 yards, which ranks No. 8. Both Cornhuskers quarterback Taylor Martinez and running back Rex Burkhead average 105 yards rushing.

Michigan State gained only 29 rushing yards on 23 attempts in a loss to Notre Dame on Sept. 17.

"We've got to establish a running game and be more balanced." Dantonio said after that loss, in which his quarterback, Kirk Cousins, threw 54 passes.

With the customary emphasis on physical play on offense and defense and the addition of a conference title game, coaches said a team's depth will play a deciding factor in who emerges as champion.

"It's like the NCAA (basketball) tournament," Fitzgerald said. "You've got to win your game, survive and advance. Guys are going to get dinged up. The next guy has to pick up the flag and move forward."

tjones@dispatch.com

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